Everybody Hurts
by AnnDee
Summary: Harry has a difficult time dealing with a loved one's death. Warning: Character Death. Lyrics and title from REM


"Everybody Hurts"

By: AnndeeGranger

Summary: Harry works on being able to grieve for a friend. Warning: Character death.

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor do I own Harry Potter in anyway (I wouldn't mind the deed to Won-Won), and no infringement is intended.

_When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,  
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on.  
Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes._

Harry sat in the pitch blackness of the basement at Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

He had wanted to be alone, with his thoughts, to think about everything he'd gone through in his life.

He'd never been able to get to know his parents; they had given their lives for him when he was but a year old.

He'd been forced to be subjected to the cruelty of his mother's sister and her family for ten years, and then only for a few months or weeks a year after that.

He'd been branded "The Boy Who Lived" by a world he hadn't known he'd belonged to until his eleventh birthday, and had to live with the responsibility of that name for the seven years of his education, until he'd defeated the Dark Lord, and earned a new moniker, that was way to long and too obvious: "The Boy Who Defeated the Dark Lord and Lived." God he hated that name.

But it was just a name after all.

He could also be called many other names. For instance, it would be completely truthful if the public started referring to him as, "The Boy Who Saw His Godfather Fall into the Veil", or "The Boy Who Witnessed Severus Snape Kill Albus Dumbledore", or now "The Boy Who Had to Watch as His Best Friend Ron Weasley Died of Cancer."

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along.  
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)  
If you feel like letting go, (hold on)  
When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on.

After everything Ron had been through with Harry, all that he had survived, he goes and dies of cancer before his 20th birthday.

It wasn't fair. Harry thought. He is supposed to be here, I was supposed to die young, not him. "IT'S JUST NOT FAIR!" Harry screamed, crushing his head between his hands as he sat in the small, cold, and dark basement room.

_Everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends.  
Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand.  
If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone_

There was a moment of silence, after his shout echoed in the darkness.

"You're right, it's not fair." A voice spoke softly from besides him.

"It hurts Mione." Harry's voice began to waver. He had yet to cry and the funeral had been almost a month ago.

Harry was instantly wrapped in Hermione's arms, "I know it does Harry, it's supposed to. You did love him you know."

"There is just so much I didn't get to tell him, so much I wanted to do with him, he was supposed to be best man at our wedding, he was supposed to be our children's godfather…" Harry began to let the tears fall, finally, now that he was safe in Hermione's arms.

_If you're on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,  
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on._

Hermione began to cry with him, not just for the friend and former love she had lost, but in relief as she felt Harry's body shake with sobs. Relief, that he was finally letting himself grieve fully, allowing himself to cry. "He knows Harry, he knows all that and he's watching us…wanting us to be happy. He even said that he wanted us to not postpone the wedding because of the disease that was eating away at him, he didn't want the cancer to win by destroying more lives then it had to."

"I miss him Mione…I miss playing, well losing to him at Wizard's Chess, and I miss going to Quidditch matches with him. After all he survived, how could something like this take him?" Harry cried frantically. "I hurt so bad."

Hermione clung to him tighter, wiping at her own tears, kissing his temple, "Everybody hurts Harry, at one time or another, some of us more often then others. Even Ron is hurting right now Harry because he sees the pain we are on in, and you know that's got to hurt him…but Harry, you are NOT alone, you don't have to come down to a dark cold room to grieve, grieve with us Harry, please. Just hold on to me Harry…I won't let go, I promise."

_Well, everybody hurts sometimes,  
Everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes._

Harry continued to cry for many minutes, until finally he was able to calm down.

Hermione felt him shift in her arms and heard him mutter a charm before the space around them lit up with the light from the end of Harry's wand.

Harry looked at his fiancé, saw the tears streaks on her beautiful face, but also saw the love and the compassion for him in those big brown eyes. "I'm sorry," He whispered, "for acting like a prat for the past month."

Hermione smiled, "I'm just glad you finally allowed yourself to cry…it's okay to cry you know Harry."

"I don't think I could have done it and felt safe if you hadn't come looking for me…I love you." Harry gave her a small smile leaned over to give her a tender kiss.

"I love you too." Hermione sighed, "You ready to leave?"

Harry bit his lip and got a dark look in his green eyes.

Hermione, being the witch that she was, could easily read the look, "Harry, it's okay if you want to stay a bit…it's not like you have to go back to being the Harry you were before all this happened. I'm not the same Hermione, we're all different now, and it's okay to feel sad every now and then."

Harry nodded, and placed his wand on the floor, grabbed Hermione's hand and leaned back against the wall, "Thank you…but I think we could use a little light now, don't you?"

And everybody hurts sometimes. So, hold on, hold on.  
Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. (repeat & fade)  
(Everybody hurts. You are not alone.)

A/N: I think I may have found a niche in Song Fic writing. Not as good as my last one, "Say Goodnight", but hey, I felt the need to work through some frustration with writing. The song lyrics are from an REMsong of the same name


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